Writing in their show notes, Matières Fécales’ Steven Raj Bhaskaran observed of his partner, Hannah Rose Dalton: “Watching her walk out into the world every day, receiving such judgmental reactions towards her expression, makes me feel sad sometimes regarding the intolerance of the world around us. It sends a message that being different from the norm isn’t rewarded in this society. It’s usually degraded. Regardless, she still keeps walking through the laughter, the pointing, the stares, and often the aggression.”
This was Matières Fécales’ second runway show, and just like the first, it attracted a colorful crowd of fellow travelers similarly committed to unorthodox dressing and makeup, both despite and because of the reactions it catalyzes. That kinship of difference made for a warm and supportive atmosphere at a show held in a fancy-schmancy Place Vendôme maison.
The vast majority of looks were subversions of couture standards, beginning with some rough-hemmed, strong-shoulder riffs on Dior’s Bar jacket, sometimes in frayed Chanel-ish tweed. The Barbie pink that punctuated all-black looks was both inspired by the Rose in Hannah’s name and also served as a vessel for the critique of—or at least the alternative to—conventional beauty standards that is the source of these designers’ aesthetic. Fun touches included the Stephen Jones headpiece that saw a fabric rose suspended by ribbon and chain in front of the wearer’s nose like a plague doctor’s beak.
The pieces were all highly worked and nearly always powerfully walked. Accessories included a freshened version of the looming-shoulder handbag we saw last season and more beautifully curved and not un-McQueenish shoes developed with Christian Louboutin, who was at the show. It was a shame not all of these shoes fitted their wearers: Some models seemed in torture as they tottered across the parquet and leaned for support against a fireplace whose garland of 80-ish roses had been applied with much more consideration than their footwear.
The most powerful moment of the show was delivered by model Nikki Lilly, who has a condition named high-flow craniofacial arteriovenous malformation (AVM). She wore a princess-ish, pretty tulle-skirt gown with a corseted bodice whose neckline was edged with more fabric roses. Whatever the obvious and obviously unchosen nature of her physical difference, she (and her dress) claimed our gaze with confidence, panache, and beauty.
